VATICAN CITY, DEC. 25, 2010- Here is excerpt from the message Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, wrote to priests and deacons for Christmas.
The Year for Priests, recently concluded brought us the model of the Curé of Ars in the self-giving of Christ for the life of men and women.
Even in the face of the storm of the “worldly sea,” Jesus of Nazareth repeats to his disciples, “Do not be afraid!” To the temptation of activism and of the fitful searching after solutions that are human, and all too human, He beckons us gently, “Remain in my love” (Jn 15: 9).
As the Holy Father Benedict XVI pointed out, “If we continue to read this Gospel passage attentively, we also find a second imperative: “abide”, and “observe my commandments”. “Observe” only comes second. “Abide” comes first, at the ontological level, namely that we are united with him, he has given himself to us beforehand and has already given us his love, the fruit. It is not we who must produce the abundant fruit; Christianity is not moralism, it is not we who must do all that God expects of the world but we must first of all enter this ontological mystery: God gives himself. His being, his loving, precedes our action and, in the context of his Body, in the context of being in him, being identified with him and ennobled with his Blood, we too can act with Christ” (Allocution at the Pontifical Roman Major Seminary, 12 February 2010).
Dear friends, it is precisely this primacy of the ontological over the ethical, of the “abiding” over the “doing” that is the guarantee, and the only guarantee possible, of the fruitfulness of our apostolate!
In the face of prevailing secularism and rampant relativism, Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman reminds us that, “Christianity has been too often in what seemed deadly peril, that we should fear for it any new trial now. So far is certain; on the other hand, what is uncertain, and in these great contests commonly is uncertain, and what is commonly a great surprise, when it is witnessed, is the particular mode by which, in the event, Providence rescues and saves His elect inheritance. Sometimes our enemy is turned into a friend; sometimes he is despoiled of that special virulence of evil which was so threatening; sometimes he falls to pieces of himself; sometimes he does just so much as is beneficial, and then is removed. Commonly the Church has nothing more to do than to go on in her own proper duties, in confidence and peace; to stand still and to see the salvation of God” (Biglietto Speech, 12 May 1879).